and some of my other hobbies too

Monday, February 12, 2007

Yesterday I worked on finishing the alterations on another pair of black pants from my stash. I have a pile of pants sitting in my sewing room. I seem to have a propensity for buying them, but unfortunately I don’t have the same propensity for fixing them. On these I took a little in at the back of the waistband and raised the hem to my length. Later in the evening I did the hand work on the hems and left them ready to wear to work this morning.

(Click to enlarge)

Speaking of pants alterations.This alteration was easy compared to what I usually have to do. I almost always have to alter the crotch length on store bought pants. I usually remove the waistband and zipper. Once the zipper is removed I can cut down the front. Usually I take off about 1 to 2 inches right at the front crotch length and merge the cut back to the regular length in the back. Next I put the zipper back in and reattach the waistband. The pants always look kind of strange when I’m done with them, with the sloping front but that it the way I’m built and they always fit much better.

With my recent weight loss I have been encouraged to wade into the pants pile to see just what I have accumulated. I was amazed and chagrined to learn that I have about 25 pairs of pants, mostly black, and most with tags still attached. I blush to think of my inattention in mindlessly accumulating and then forgetting them over the years. Especially considering that my working wardrobe is sadly in need of basic black pants. My only excuse it that my dissatisfaction with my weight has kept me unenthusiastic about sewing for myself in general. Hopefully I will be able to maintain the weight loss which in turn will keep me motivated enough to slowly clear my sewing room of the stashed clothes.

I received the package of workshop materials from Ann Kullberg in the mail today. I will need to pack this along with the rest of the art materials I have collected to take on the cruise. They mailed out the workshop supplies to all the workshop attendees so that they (the workshop organizers) wouldn’t have to haul a humongous amount of supplies on to the ship themselves.

Included in this package were the two cruise related items I ordered from the Ann Kullberg website, a pink T-shirt and a tote bag, both emblazoned with lettering that commemorates the cruise. I’m thinking that the tote bag will be just the thing to carry my workshop supplies. They will be nice keepsakes of the trip.